RL Weekly: Sinfield’s Troops, Golden Boots & New Recruits

Kevin Sinfield says he is trying to “change how people feel about the MND community and each other” as his latest epic fundraising effort for Motor Neurone Disease concludes in London

The rugby league legend and his team of ultra-marathon runners have completed seven ultras in seven days in seven cities in honour of the sport’s iconic number seven Rob Burrow, Sinfield’s former team-mate at Leeds Rhinos.

Burrow remains in stable health, indeed he was in his trademark jokey form when I saw him last week, but now completely in the grips of the brutal MND. Sinfield’s running exploits have raised millions for the charities around Burrow, namely the MNDA and Leeds Hospitals Charity who are constructing a special MND hospital in Rob’s name in Leeds.

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Another of the city’s great sporting exports, former England footballer James Milner, described the latest challenge as “madness” as he watched Sinfield pass through his current club Brighton & Hove Albion on the penultimate day before the glorious finish in London.

Ahead of the final leg of the journey this week Sinfield told The Sportsman he was drained but focused and excited, with the major focus of course being Burrow and the continued search to find a cure for this devastating illness. Rarely has a sportsman transcended sport to such a degree in a new role after retirement, with Sinfield now almost single-handedly representing the best chance of finding a cure due to the awareness and funds he is raising.

So where has this Herculean endurance streak come from and what has driven Sinfield to do what he is doing?

The former Rhinos captain hated running during his career and only took up marathons when accepting a place in the London Marathon once his playing days ended. Training runs would always - wherever possible - take place near running water, because the sound - he says - is such a naturally affective stress-buster. The addiction to running was borne from its problem-solving qualities - when working as Director of Rugby at Leeds, Sinfield told me he would go for a run to work out how to fix issues that needed sorting that day, and by the end of the run he would have worked out a plan.

Discovering marathons came at a time for Sinfield when a new focus was needed to replace the adrenalin-filled void that so many elite sportspeople feel post-career. So he will admit himself that there is a selfish element to this extraordinary charity effort, the need for a new focus, that search for a new purpose, and in truth the desire to lead a new team to a new goal, in the same way that he led Leeds to all those Grand Final wins alongside Burrow in that Rhinos dynasty.

The main reason though, of course, was wanting to do something for Rob when he was diagnosed, a crippling feeling that all of his friends felt in the face of such heartbreaking news.

Sinfield is a natural leader and it is no surprise that his new trailblazing purpose has grabbed the public’s attention, and the platform afforded by BBC Breakfast has allowed the crusade to take on a momentum that the team would never have believed possible.

The narrative may have shifted a little along the way - Sinfield and Rob were never really the great mates during their playing days that this incredible story has since allowed them to become. That bond was always a professional relationship between two great sportspeople, and what we are seeing now is a natural captain wanting to do something to help one of his players. And what Sinfield has done since has further underlined just why he was so well thought of as a captain and leader, and has given both hope and a voice to a community suffering in silence so brutally for so long.

Elsewhere this week, Wigan Warriors half-back Harry Smith missed out on becoming the first English winner of the prestigious Golden Boot award since Tommy Makinson in 2018, an award Sinfield himself won in 2012. The honour went instead to New Zealand prop James Fisher-Harris, with Georgia Hale and Jeremy Bourson taking the women’s and wheelchair awards.

Smith won’t be looking back on this week with any degree of regret however, as Wigan handed the 23-year-old a bumper new contract until 2027. Smith believes the Betfred Super League champions are about to build a new dynasty. “We are building something really special,” he says, “and I want to be a part of it.” Wigan clearly believe Smith is a player they can build their team around now, and judging by his displays alongside Mikey Lewis against Tonga, that is likely to be the case for England too.

One Wiganer who is on the move though is centre Chris Hankinson. Featherstone Rovers have been looking to offload the player since slashing their wage bill after missing out on Super League promotion in October. Hankinson had been commuting from his home in the north west while at Fev, and I’m told he sounded out Salford about a move to the Red Devils soon after the season ended. Those talks initially stalled because of the player’s wage demands but I understand the deal is now agreed and Hankinson will return to Super League with Salford subject to approval from the RFL.

The Red Devils suffered a big blow though, with one of their unsung heroes announcing his shock departure on compassionate grounds. Ken Sio has been the club’s top try scorer for the last two seasons and leaves an enormous hole - and a lot of points - to make up. Salford boss Paul Rowley seems to thrive on doing it tough, which is just as well having lost star men Andy Ackers, Brodie Croft and now Sio, his winter squad is already looking thread-bare, with at least one more departure potentially on the cards.

But we’ll finish with a beacon of positivity, with another French side bidding to make an impact in the British game. Carcassonne have applied to join Betfred League One for 2026, with their application likely to be assessed the previous year. Make no mistake, this is a hugely ambitious club with a tenacious leader in co-president Remy Bertrand. And it’s an absolutely lovely part of the world. The possibility of a three-strong French presence alongside Catalans Dragons and Toulouse Olympique is exactly the kind of noise the sport should be creating right now.

CATALANS 10/1 TO WIN GRAND FINAL - BETFRED*

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